• Member Since 13th Jun, 2014
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Plenitude


People are really reading this ? Favorite visual novel : Umineko no Naku Koro Ni. Favorite Anime : Steins;Gate and others.

More Blog Posts51

  • 271 weeks
    The LAST fight against Project Horizons : chapter 76 to Epilogue

    The rain is falling down on the graveyards. So many lives lost against Project Horizons, I think to mysel, blowing the smoke of my cigarette that was barely protected from the rain thanks to my hat. So many soldiers died trying to make sense of that bloated creature that is not unlike the Legate : huge, shapeless, full of wounds and angst and ultimately ends in a disappointment. I look at the

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    3 comments · 428 views
  • 272 weeks
    The chronicles of Project Horizons : chapter 74 to 75 part 2

    We're reaching the last stretch ! Moon stupidity will continue and the genocide of characters will start soon and hopefully, I'll get through it without issue. I hope I'll be able to convey as best as I can why things are the way they are and how I feel about them. In any case, let us dance for one of the final times.

    Let's go !

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    0 comments · 301 views
  • 272 weeks
    The chronicles of Project Horizons : Chapter 71 to 73

    Let's continue this last trip down PH lane. We're reaching chapters that are far too long for what they actually say and we are really making it hard for me to not see things in a cynical way. Especially when it comes to the death fakeouts but more on that later. So without further distraction, let's jump right in !

    Let's go !

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    2 comments · 283 views
  • 272 weeks
    The chronicles of Project Horizons : chapter 70

    We reached the last ten chapters of this fiction and you don't know how much I want to put this fiction behind me (even if I'm going to make blogposts that will talk about different aspect of the fictions after this but at least I won't have to reread a chapter to make a BP each time. The time I'll save will be insane.) So without delay...

    Let's go !

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    4 comments · 259 views
  • 272 weeks
    The chronicles of Project Horizons : chapter 69

    I'm back from the holidays and ready to finally put the last nails on the coffin of Project Horizons, it's important for me to go through it to the bitter end ! Jokes aside, for the few that follows those BP, thanks for keeping up and I'll make sure to talk about the last chapters with a bit more focus on the diverse aspects that made them what they are. Just be warned that the two parts of

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    2 comments · 317 views
Jan
9th
2019

The chronicles of Project Horizons : chapter 74 to 75 part 2 · 6:12pm Jan 9th, 2019

We're reaching the last stretch ! Moon stupidity will continue and the genocide of characters will start soon and hopefully, I'll get through it without issue. I hope I'll be able to convey as best as I can why things are the way they are and how I feel about them. In any case, let us dance for one of the final times.

Let's go !

So now that they met "Tom" the Star God, this one is trying to explain to them the importance of him destroying the Eater of Souls. Essentially, he tells them that even though he will wipe out everything on Earth, the cycle of life and rebirth will happen in time and that seeing Death as an end is a mistake. A pretty common concept. Then he shows what will happen if the Eater of Souls is allowed to act. Then... there's this very, very, very strange line from P-21 :

“You’re saying that what the Lightbringer did was worthless?” P-21 asked with a scowl.

Tom shook his head. “No. Certainly not! In fact, the Lightbringer bought time and hope for your world. Had she not helped, this demise would have come far sooner and surer. The Lightbringer broke the slow slide of entropy and decay. She snapped countless people out of complacency. Even if Red Eye had survived and the Enclave remained in the skies, they still would have fallen within a generation. And neither would have seen their enemy. The Eater is a parasite within your world, claiming whatever life it can. By the time that it woke from the trauma of its fall, Equus had recovered, and for eons after, the generation of new life far exceeded what it could consume. But the cataclysm that struck your world destroyed that. Now more life is eaten than is renewed, and with each year, the gap grows as the cycle is impoverished. Exhaustion will take centuries, millennia, perhaps... but it is inevitable.”

I see so many wrong things here that I don't know where to start. Actually, no, I know where to start : Why the fuck would P-21 ask that in the middle of a conversation ? Since when does P-21 care that much about what Pip did ? This whole line seems like the author trying to tell the readers that his story isn't trying to say Pip's adventure was worthless by showing what she did change. However, it's too late Somber. You can say whatever you want about her shaking them out of complacency, the truth of the matter remains that 99.9% of the adventure of BJ is more essential than the one of Pip. Plus, "she snapped countless people out of complacency" ? You mean like BJ did for all of Hoofington and beyond making the real actors come to their senses while making Red Eye look like a secondary villain at best ? Stop trying to salvage your fiction from being seen as a one-upping of the original, it's too late.

“But why didn’t the Eater turn the moonstone pendants to starmetal?” Scotch Tape asked.

“With enough time in proximity, it would have. You already know that moonstone protects from Enervation, but you don't know why,” Tom replied. “More important than the stone itself is the soul it contains. The Eater’s arrival on Equus extinguished incalculable life, and that life was condensed in the moon. The souls in pieces of moonstone protect the souls of the living.”

Keep that quote in mind for later by the way. It'll serve something later and believe me, it's juicy.

Also, Tom explains that the Eater of Souls transforms people into machine because they are easier to predict that way but he also says that Cognitum by going into BJ's body, abandonned the only body that could resist the Eater's influence. So... purely robotic creature like AI are immune to the Eater's influence ? I suppose that's why she said that the Eater never talked to her but then why is the Legate, a servant of the Eater for millenia now, untouched by any form of technology safe from his runic heart ? I can understand the need to reduce the impredictability of an organic creature (even though for that you would need to remove the brain and put an artificial one, effectively making the Eater's influence completely ineffective) but why would the Legate be safe from that ? Is he an exception too ? In any case...

BJ's team refuse to let Horizons fire since they don't want to murder everyone even though their choice could lead to the destruction of everything. It's the kind of choice that is irrational but not illogical for those characters and as such, they believe they can do everything right. Perhaps they're right, perhaps they're wrong but I think the crux of it that they don't want to give up. Failure is better than abandon for them, even though one would be far more devastating than the other but then again, as humans, we usually see through a very narrow lens and it's a good, if classic, clash against an all-knowing entity. Nothing to say here about their choice.

However the next part makes no sense to me, Tom explains that the other stars don't care about their planet and that they have other matters to attend to. However, did we not see a flashback where all the stars fought against the Eater of Souls ? Aren't they scared that the Eater of Souls could come back and absorb them all ? Hell, didn't we see some stars (Dagon, Nibiru, etc) helping the StarKatteri in doing their own thing to the point of helping the Legate ? So, how exactly are the Stars "uninterested" by the matters of Equus ? It's a pretty weak explanation from Somber when we know how powerful the Eater of Souls actually is but whatever I guess. Some stars care but they conveniently can't act because they have bigger fishes to fry apparently. Tom finally accepts the decision of the mortals to try and fight against all odds.

Next scene, Echo betrays Cognitum and helps BJ fight against her by delaying Horizon's firing. I'll skip the fight scene that ensues, just know that there is a Japanese mercenary that dies and it's incredibly jarring to see Somber writes in japanese for the sake of... what exactly ? A joke ? She also saves a mercenary that is strangely developped. I mean, why would you intoduce a new character so close to the end ? From what I heard, he is a character Somber created for something else entirely and honestly... I don't think he should have been included this far into the game. It breaks the pace and honestly... one of the few things he'll do will be... disgusting.

The fight continues, chaos ensues. It's honestly a bit too long and confusing for me to care and Somber even finds time to mix some hallucinations of BJ seeing RD and company fight against some enemies. Because we need that right now. Then Cognitum captures the team into her telekinetic field and ponders on who to kill first in typical stupid villain fashion. She chooses P-21. She is smart enough to look into his mane and tail for grenades but not inside the hat and he unleashes the fury of six EMP grenades which incapacitates her hard and P-21 is wounded due to the blast.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You know, once upon a time, unicorns only had a few spells related to their magic talent.”

“Yeah, and once upon a time, ponies banged each other with swords and clubs while rolling around in shit all day. Then we invented guns,” he drawled, finishing the spell and drawing a cigarette. “Best I can do,” he said as he lit it and took a drag, then looked at Cognitum slumped against the throne. “Can’t believe you beat her.”

Oh my god. Shut the fuck up, Somber. Showing how you twisted the fucking canon of FO: E for your convenience is not funny.

Also, BJ gets her body back by removing Cognitum's memories and putting BJ's into her old body because apparently, it's that easy to do some body swapping. You put memories into a machine that automatically creates a well-made kernel and boom, you have a functioning AI. Ah, the convenience of Bullshit technology. When BJ gets her body back, she interacts with the Soul of Luna that is inside and we essentially get a Goldenblood 2.0 with BJ minimizing the importance of what Luna did because EVERYONE in this fucking fiction needs to be a poor little soul we need to feel sorry for. I think the term is woobifying ?

“I am Nightmare Moon! I have perfect memory of all my great works and terrible crimes!” she declared, the ministries crumbling into rubble behind her. “I have orchestrated disaster! I alone am responsible for all the ruin we suffered.”

“Oh stop!” I shouted back at her. “What about the zebra Caesar? What about your sister? What about those nobles and businessponies who said war was the only option?” And as I spoke, a shadowy zebra loomed to my left, an adumbral Princess Celestia on my right, and a horde of faceless ponies in fancy dresses and business suits in a semicircle around me, facing her. “You made bad calls. Do you think you were the very first?” I stared at her and let the shadows fade away. “You really don’t remember talking to me earlier, do you?”

Bad calls ? Bad 'fucking' calls ? For crying out loud, Somber, we're talking about the leader of a nation ! They have the responsibility to assume their mistakes and the state of their fucking country without passing the fucking buck. This constant need for diminishing what they did simply because they didn't twirl their moustaches in evil glee is incredibly stupid. As a leader and a sentient creature, you are responsible for what you do. Manipulating people isn't a 'bad call', a bad call is a decision you make with insufficient information or clairvoyance to the possibilities. Manipulating people is the height of hubris and it is an active aspect that she cannot deny.

Bj is a fucking Queen of whataboutism. Yes, people like Caesar and Celestia and the nobles have their parts of their responsibilities in the war. However, trying to say that others have some part of the blame doesn't remove the fact that Luna and Goldenblood pushed their country into a state of chaos, intrigue and distrust. Stop fucking trying to say that no one is to blame and that war is just a silly mistake done by people who made 'bad calls'. Making a grey character doesn't mean making them cry when they make mistakes. You have to make them own them, take responsibility for them and force them to try to do better if they really wish to be forgiven. While BJ can do that, she also is far too ready to say that nothing they did was that bad since they didn't like it. Those are not mistakes that you can brush off, you need them to matter. Then again, Somber seems to like the idea that nothing, even a genocide done for no other reason than to spite the opponent and force them out of hiding is beyond forgiving if someone cries for like two seconds.

Each and every time a character who did horrible shit on purpose start to cry, BJ gives the "you're a good pony" speech. Luna wanted to show people how good she was at ruling and show that she was so stressed by power because she didn't have time to prepare. Of course, BJ will always have a point of comparison to their struggle to show that they are on the same level as them and there is nothing she can't understand even though she never had to lead a fucking country nor did she have to live for millenia (yes, we'll get to that in the Epilogue.) so fucking give me a break with the "no one needs to be punished, just given another chance."

In unison, we said softly, “We do everything we can to make up for it, knowing that we’ll never succeed in getting rid of the guilt. We devote ourselves to spending every second trying to do better despite the fact that it will never be enough. And we pray with every single good act we do that somehow, when our lives are over, that our lifetimes will come close to making up for the wrong we committed.”

Let's talk about this mantra that Spike used and that they are now using as their core philosophy. It sounds right, don't you think ? Being a hero because it's the right thing to do and to try to make up for the wrong they commited. I even said as much earlier. Seems like a perfectly good philosophy. Except Somber managed to splendidly distort it.

Trying to do better doesn't mean "stick your nose in every single matter that exists, try to fix it and even if you don't succeed, at least you tried." If you do more wrong than right, then your philosophy is just a self-serving one. Bj killed tons of people on shaky principles, she is always portrayed as trying to do the right thing even though the narrative makes it so that the world bends for her : she kills Enclave troops ? Nobody care, they were evil. She destroys a settlement of people forced into slaver business ? Nobody cares, they were evil. Her mistakes are treated like nothing important and while her good decisions will have long term consequences, her bad ones never did. Hell, even when she was raped, she even succeeded in making that a win since the rapist felt very bad about his action.

A friend of mine consider that BJ is a self-serving, deluded bitch with a hero complex and I am inclined to agree. People love BJ even when they shouldn't and even the one that are seen as on the fence begrudgingly respect her. She is a Mary Sue that should fuck GB. They would create a singularity.

Also, BJ became an alicorn. Like a real alicorn with all the powers that Luna had. Fucking kek.

Cognitum succeeded in downloading herself into the mind of ALL the mechasprites and then another fun part starts. Echo is eaten alive by the Mechasprites in a matter of seconds. See you, stupid character you will not be missed. BJ uses the last bullet on the Mechasprites instead of Tom, making the only way to prevent the firing useless now. Cognitum is finally dead for good.

Second character to die, P-21. During the fight, he had been thrown against a lot of metal bars and he is pierced everywhere like a voodoo doll. After trying to extract him, they realized they can't and are forced to abandon him after he said his piece. We learn what's the cutie mark of P-21, a symbol of freedom and love (a heart breaking through chains) and it is a nice little thing to know about. Too bad it's for a character I stopped caring about as soon as he became blackjacksexual and blackjackromantic.

Rampage stays behind with P-21 for their last moment, determined to die. After the castle crashes down on them after Horizons firing, Rampage comes back to save BJ and co from the void of space by pushing their immobilized cart. Rampage is thus left alone in the void of space on the Moon, forced to die eternally.

Bastard, Scotch and BJ are the only ones to flee the Moon alive to go back to Earth in their rocket after failing their mission spectacularly. Tom is on its way to Equus and nothing can stop it.

***********

BJ is in the rocket, trying to not think about how everything went to shit and noticed that the soul of Luna was starting to influence her behavior but quite honestly, while it could have been a very interesting tool, Somber isn't clear at all about the details of soul, spirit and body. He distinguished memories (spirit) from the soul but... why does the soul have memories then ? He said that the spirit was the expression of self while the soul was the nature of self but if it is the case, you shouldn't be able to discuss memories with a soul. If a soul is simply giving direction for the self to act and the spirit is consciously doing things to reflect the self and thus soul, then it makes no sense that later, BJ has flashbacks of things that Luna did in the past or even talks as if she's Luna. If identity is spirit + soul then what BJ is now should be something that is beyond Luna and her but that will not be the case. She will not be more than the sum of its parts.

Bastard tries to show his personality and while I do like that he is a foil to BJ in the sense that being a professional murderer he opposes everything she stands for... He doesn't go beyond that. Sure, he does try to show the inherent contradictions in the way BJ thinks and acts but it's too little too late. Oh, also, BJ feels alienated because she isn't sexually attracted to Bastard despite her reset button for emotional trauma being sex. As I said : it could be interesting but it's not the right part of the fiction to introduce such changes.

And we're back to the Bullshitron scenes, meaning that I'll resume them very concisely.

First scene out of the rocket : GB has been captured by the Legate. They notice that Tom isn't coming straight down but is actually slingshotted by orbiting around the Sun and Moon. Just a quick reason to delay and help BJ get there in time.

Second scene out of the rocket : Shenanigans with the Zodiacs. Sagittarius died. Riveting stuff.

Third scene out of the rocket : The Team with Silver Spoon are in a dire situation. They succeed their mission though through the sacrifice of Silver Spoon who sees Diamond Tiara in her last moments making for a somewhat touching scene for barely a character.

Fourth scene : Skipping it entirely. It's a C plot nobody should care about.

BJ is discussing with Scotch Tape about their loss and a bit of Zebra lore is thrown in since Bastard participates in the discussion. Panic attack of BJ crash lands in her head. She avoids the horror of thinking about it by going back to the Bullshitron.

Fifth scene out of the rocket : Rainbow Dash steals Storm Chaser place for a suicide bombing inside of the Tempest that the enemy unleashed. She dies and Storm Chaser lives. Both shared their regrets and RD disappears in a blaze of glory.

Sixth scene out of the rocket : Psalm romantic subplot with Stronghoof and Crumpets. Psalm goes back to carrying a gun and saves Stronghoof. Crumpets and Stronghoof nearly dies but they don't.

Seventh scene out of the rocket : Chaos on the ground, Charity tries to fight back the invaders and people from her own team becomes crazy and stomp on her while robbing her shop. Harpica saves her for a time then Deus chimes in to fight back the Brood. He dies, saving her and other fillies.

The chapter finishes with Scotch Tape venting her frustration to Bastard and BJ wallowing in self-pity.

******

This chapter contains the stupidest and most useless scene of sex of the fiction. I'll take care of it when we reach it but damn, I don't know who asked for it but it was certainly not welcome.

First scene out of the rocket : Grace fights against all odds, let her brother run away and she is finally saved by Hellhounds who decided to finally help them after BJ's speech. Remember that part ? Yep, she did that and it worked. Grace has some nice character development but then again, she is not that important in the grand scheme of things. She offers to the Hellhounds to live in Elysium at least.

Now... Bastard is fucking Scotch Tape because Scotch Tape asked for it and wanted to see if she worked like BJ for emotional trauma. Scotch Tape asked a random mercenary that was out to kill them to fuck her and BJ is aroused by it because apparently, Luna was a voyeur. Riveting. Bastard just went from kinda cool mercenary who appeared far too late to a pedomercenary that just fucks fillies because they asked for it. My god this scene is useless but at least it's mercifully short ? My god this is stupid. Insanely so.

The point isn't that it is OOC for Scotch Tape to want to fuck someone to get her emotions in check. It's that the fucking adult in the room said yes to it and it doesn't really make sense that Scotch Tape is just fucking someone she doesn't care about or borderline hates. Bastard is just a fucking opportunist after all, there is nothing in him worth being fucked by him. Immaturity can only justify so many things, Bastard isn't 10. Besides, while I don't mind sex when used intelligently, Somber doesn't use it intelligently. It's essentially just fetish fuel.

Second scene out of the Rocket : She's inside Glory and feels how much she suffers. Why does Glory still have her Pipbuck on her despite being in an hospital bed, crippled ? I don't fucking know.

Third scene out of the rocket : A battle. Whisper and Stygius are kicking ass and they rejoined with Hades, Persephone and Tenebra. Stygius asks Whisper in marriage. She starts to sing and the ponies that were losing are now changing the tides of war thanks to her song, making them fight in a more efficient manner. The Legate tries to shoot her down but kill Stygius instead that shielded her. The song continues and it's implied that all the fighters are hearing it and fighting better as a result. A sort of link through harmonious sounds. Make of that what you will.

Bastard is giving advice to BJ to deal with sad Scotch Tape and honestly, I feel like he is far too amicable with her but then again, we need to rush developments. Like that for example :

“Because I didn’t want the crazy moon Princess to pop my head like a zit if I’d done you bloody and raw,” Bastard answered from across the rocket. “If you’re old enough to seriously want it, you’re old enough to seriously do it. Though that was in the top ten list of most messed up things I’ve done.”

Sure, Bastard. You're able to recognize that Scotch is acting impulsively to try and make herself feel better or numb but you're not smart enough to not enable this rash decision of her and now Somber tries to joke about it by making it all casual and embarrassing. Screw you and your stupid fetishes.

Another scene out of the rocket : Goldenblood and the Legate. The Twilight Society uses the Celestia One on the Core but the F.A.D.E. shields block it and divert the energy they absorbed towars the Eater of Souls which allows him to wake up and tear himself a bit from the crust of the Earth. Then the Legate is attacked by a lot of ponies (Pyrelight, Whisper, Velvet, Lancer to name a few). Long story short, through cooperation they managed to harm his regenerative heart. This makes him transform into a gigantic mass of flesh like a Boss in a Resident Evil game but he isn't dead. As the Eater of Souls escapes the depth of Earth, the heroes escapes but Sekashi and GB dies in the scene.

And Glory is revealed to be alive and well.

Closing thoughts : Do I really need to say what I think of that ? This genocide of characters is plainly ridiculous. Echo aka the Dealer died without even a thought from BJ. It's a character that shared her deepest secrets and shared his vision with her. Not even a thought. GB ? Same thing. At least P-21 had some sense of a send-off. After chapters after chapters of fake-out deaths, Somber is now killing everyone from the minor characters to the protagonists.

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